Key Stage 3

Year 7

In Year 7 and 8 students follow the National Curriculum for History and will investigate a number of topics in chronological order. These topics have been themed as ruling, living & working and moving and travelling. Each topic has a key enquiry question for pupils to assess and the concepts and skills needed by students to become successful historians are developed across the Key Stage. The key questions for these topics are:

Why did William win the Battle of Hastings?

What did people fear in the Middle Ages?

Elizabethan England: Golden Age or Rotten Reign?

Was Charles I to blame for causing the English Civil War?

Did Emancipation lead to equality for Black Americans?

How did life change in Britain 1750 – 1900?

Is the British Empire something to be proud of?

Who was to blame for causing the First World War?

What was life really like on the Western Front?

Was the Treaty of Versailles to blame for the Second World War?

How badly were civilians affected by the Second World War?

Who was responsible for The Holocaust?

Did the policy of containment work?

There are a number of key concepts that underpin the study of history at Key Stage 3:

Chronological understanding

Understanding and using appropriately dates, vocabulary and conventions that describe historical periods and the passing of time.

Developing a sense of period through describing and analysing the relationships between the characteristic features of periods and societies.

Building a chronological framework of periods and using this to place new knowledge in its historical context.

Cultural, ethnic and religious diversity

Understanding the diverse experiences and ideas, beliefs and attitudes of men, women and children in past societies and how these have shaped the world.

Change and continuity

Identifying and explaining change and continuity within and across periods of history.